Please Listen to my Demo

Last Friday a lawyer was kicked out of the Cook County Criminal Courts Building after trying to give his CD to R. Kelly in the courtroom where the singer’s child pornography case was taking place.

According to the Chicago Tribune, attorney Mike Roman approached Kelly while the singer was sitting alone at the defense table. The local criminal-defense lawyer, who fronts the Latin rock band, Mike Roman and the Tellstars, offered Kelly a free copy of his CD “Cha Cha Time.”

“No, thank you,” Kelly reportedly said with a polite smile. “I’m not allowed to take anything.” Roman persisted, but Kelly continued to decline the CD. “I’m not allowed to talk to anyone,” Kelly said, citing the gag order imposed on him by trial judge Gaughan.

Roman offered to just leave the disc, but Kelly asked him not to, according to Eurweb. “Please,” Kelly said quietly. “You have to leave me alone,” the singer insisted.

Other attorneys in the courtroom noticed the interchange and called security. Roman was briefly detained in a courthouse anteroom and eventually escorted from the building.

Roman cooperated with his removal, but not before trying to sell a “Cha Cha Time” CD to one of Kelly’s defense attorneys for $15, the Tribune reported.

In the case that day, Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis was forced serve as a testifying witness, after his argument that he was protected by reporter’s privilege and the 1st Amendment was rejected.

DeRogatis is the reporter that turned in the sex tape in question to police in 2002 after he received it anonymously in the mail. Judge Vincent Gaughan ruled that he is not protected from testifying because he is the first person known to have possessed the video.

The defense team may only question the reporter about what occurred with the tape between the time he received it and the moment he gave it to authorities. DeRogatis must turn over notes from interviews conducted after police begain investigating, but he is not obligated to reveal sources from before the tape was obtained by authorities.